Mall owners press redevelopment plan

The Capital Mall ownership is hoping to attract more national retailers through a redevelopment plan.

Rob Kingsbury and Kirk Farmer attended the Jefferson City Public Works and Planning Committee meeting Thursday to discuss a development agreement for a Community Improvement District.

Kingsbury said the agreement is more of a technical issue to verify that the Capital Mall JC LLC is following city code on its redevelopment plans aimed at attracting new retailers to the mall. Kingsbury noted the redevelopment plans do not include expanding at this time.

“We do have some vacant lots out there, which we plan to develop as opportunities come along, but the primary focus of our efforts are to fill the vacancies that we already have in the mall,” Kingsbury said. “The exercise that we did today, the meetings we had with the city, were really just confirmation we were going about that the right way.”

Farmer said the company would like to move forward quickly to get retailers into the mall as soon as possible, adding they are trying to get new stores by 2015.

“We want to have the redevelopment plan confirmed and everything straight with the city so that we can continue, and in some cases begin, to actively pursue the retailers that we want to bring in to Jefferson City,” Kingsbury said.

The committee voted to move the agreement forward to the full City Council.

Also related to the Farmer Holding Company is a resolution the committee moved forward to the City Council level supporting the expansion of the Stone Ridge Transportation Development District. Stone Ridge encompasses all the retail stores within the shopping center off Missouri Boulevard, including Kohls and GameStop.

The Stone Ridge TDD included improvements to Missouri Boulevard and South Ten Mile Drive, as well as construction of Stoneridge Parkway, for a cost of roughly $3.106 million. According to the state auditor’s office, the TDD, which was established in January 2007, is expected to last 20 years.

City attorney Drew Hilpert said the district needs to be expanded for the arrival of Sam’s Club to the area. The resolution states the added improvements will be extensions to Stoneridge Parkway and Hard Rock Drive, as well as grading work.